When considering which words need the most instructional attention, let's turn to Isabel Beck's practical way of categorizing vocabulary words into three tiers: The kids have selected and rated the words, and now it's your turn. This data will show you which words they know, those they have some understanding of, and those words that are completely foreign to them. Read through them all and use the results as a formative assessment. Then, on the same paper, have them write a definition or "my guess on meaning" for the words they know and kind of know (No dictionaries!)īefore they turn in these pre-reading charts, be sure to emphasize this is not about "being right" but that they are providing you with information to guide next steps in class vocabulary instruction.Ask each child to create a chart where he/she writes down words of choice, and rates each one as "know it," "sort of know it," or "don't know it at all.".Then, here's what to do after the students pick their own words: How will I teach all these words, and still have class time for all the other things we need to do? First off, rather than waste my time compiling lists, I should have let the kids skim the text in chapter one and select their own words. When I looked at those long lists, I began to freak out. My first year teaching, before my tenth graders began reading Lord of the Flies, I went through every chapter and made lists of all the vocabulary words I thought they'd have trouble with, so that I could pre-teach them. One of the biggest mistakes we teachers make in vocabulary instruction is selecting all the words for the students and not giving them a say in the matter. When choosing which words deserve special instructional time, we don't have to do it alone. (This is why every classroom should have a killer classroom library stocked full of high-interest, age appropriate books.) Selecting WordsĪh, so many words, so little time. Of course the way we learn words in context, or implicitly, is by reading, then reading some more. They need also to learn words in context, not stand alone lists that come and go each week. The truth is, and the research shows, students need multiple and various exposures to a word before they fully understand that word and can apply it.
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